Melissa Scott is the City of Philadelphia’s Chief Information Officer, CIO. As CIO, Melissa holds a critical leadership role responsible for overseeing the City’s information technology strategy, infrastructure, and operations. She also ensures that technology initiatives align with Mayor Parker’s goals and deliver effective, efficient, and secure services to residents, businesses, and city departments.
Melissa is a lifelong public servant, highly experienced professional with a distinguished background in both the public and private sectors. Her diverse work experience has equipped her with the skills and knowledge needed to excel in her roles and make a significant impact on the organizations she has served.
In recent years, Melissa has led several groundbreaking initiatives within the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Licenses and Inspections, revolutionizing how services are delivered to residents. Notably, she spearheaded the development of the L&I Virtual Inspection Application. A state-of-the-art platform that allows building regulation experts and inspectors to offer services virtually through remote inspection software, live-streaming videos, photos, and custom inspection reports. This innovation is anticipated to boost L&I productivity by an impressive 80%.
Melissa has also effectively collaborated with stakeholders to lead a team of over 50 individuals in decommissioning over 2,000 voting machines in Philadelphia. She tactically partnered with vendors and tech teams to plan, manage, and implement innovative voter-verifiable paper ballot systems throughout the city. This project delivered an ADA-compliant, paper-based universal voting system that significantly enhanced the city’s election day experience by consolidating the process of marking and tabulating votes into a single step, making it more convenient and efficient for voters.
Additionally, Melissa guided a team of developers in creating new software to fulfill the City of Philadelphia’s mandate to initiate tax collection from businesses, specifically the Philadelphia Beverage Tax. Throughout this project, she showcased her capacity to rapidly understand business operations, evaluate potential risks, and maintain fruitful relationships with business associates. Since its launch, this application has been instrumental in helping the City garner over $100 million in revenue.
Melissa is dedicated to streamlining essential government services by prioritizing reliable service delivery, safeguarding citizen data, and promoting effective communication channels. She fosters an environment where employees can freely explore new ideas, experiment with emerging technologies, and push the boundaries of what is possible. By creating an atmosphere that promotes out-of-the-box thinking and embracing challenges, the Office of Innovation and Technology (OIT) will thrive with groundbreaking solutions.
Melissa received her Bachelor of Arts from Howard University and her Master of Business from Eastern University.